Forming Intentional Disciples

The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus

By: Sherry A. Weddell

Narrated by: Nan McNamara

How can we transmit a living, personal Catholic faith to future generations? By coming to know Jesus Christ, and following him as his disciples. These are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church.

Consider these statistics for the United States:

• Only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practicing
• Fully 10 percent of all adults in America are ex-Catholics
• The number of marriages celebrated in the Church decreased dramatically, by nearly 60 percent, between 1972 and 2010
• Only 60 percent of Catholics believe in a personal God

If the Church is to reverse these trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized - in other words, Catholics-in-the-pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him. This work of discipleship lies at the heart of Forming Intentional Disciples, a guide designed to help Church leaders, parish staff, and all Catholics transform parish life from within.

Drawing upon her 15 years of experience with the Catherine of Siena Institute, Sherry Weddell leads listeners through steps that will help Catholics enter more deeply into a relationship with God and the river of apostolic creativity, charisms, and vocation that flow from that relationship for the sake of the Church and the world.

Learn about the five thresholds of postmodern conversion; how to open a conversation about faith and belief; how to ask thought-provoking questions and establish an atmosphere of trust, when to tell the great story of Jesus; how to help someone respond to God's call to intentional discipleship; and much more. And be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.

©2012 Sherry A. Weddell (P)2018 Sherry A. Weddell

The missing piece

Well written. Great ideas and steps to focus on others and to lead others to Christ. It’s not all about us, but reaching out and bringing others to the faith.

Practical, implementable advice for the Catholic church today

Unique perspective on the problem of discipleship today. Well read (except for the small problem of the pronunciation of the word “apostolate.” Kept driving me nuts whenever she would say it! Ha.). Challenging, convicting and important to hear.

Outstanding!

An excellent book with many tangible ideas for Parish use. I plan to dig out my hard copy so I can make more notes and share them with our pastor.

Important & worthwhile!

I found this both practical and inspirational.
I was especially moved by the stories and real life examples peppered throughout the book. Thank you and God bless you Sherry!

Valuable resource, required reading

This book diagnoses a lot of the problems going on in the church today in a way that I hadn’t thought of before. It makes it clear what kinds of changes need to be made for a parish (and individual) to thrive. Personally, this was really helpful in understanding the process of evangelization in order to better understand how my approach has been wrong. It explains what steps (thresholds) must be met before you will be able to effectively pass to the next step in the conversion process.